Restaurants connect with customers through joy of chili

Several local restaurants compete in annual chili cook-off

Carmine Russo prepares a cup of New Mexico style pork green chili at the Jaybird's booth during the chili cook-off on Monday at the St. Augustine Beach Beach Blast Off at the St. Augustine Beach Pier. By LINDSAY WILES GRAMANA

Jaybird's owner Jay Martens, left, watches as McKenzie Boutwell serves New Mexico style pork green chili to Althea Januszewski during the chili cook-off on Monday at the St. Augustine Beach Beach Blast Off at the St. Augustine Beach Pier. By LINDSAY WILES GRAMANA

Maura Morden buys lemonade from Adam Haddock at a booth decorated with "1" and "3" balloons on Monday at the St. Augustine Beach Beach Blast Off at the St. Augustine Beach Pier. By LINDSAY WILES GRAMANA

Frank and Alba Solano, far right, point out their choices to Frank Campbell, farl left, and Pen Pak at a jerk chicken booth Monday evening at the St. Augustine Beach Beach Blast Off at the St. Augustine Beach Pier. By LINDSAY WILES GRAMANA

Apparently, chili can accomplish quite a bit as Monday’s Chili Cook Off at the New Year’s Eve Beach Blast Off at St. Augustine Beach proved.

Chili brought out local restaurateurs and locals for the event, which is part of the larger annual New Year’s Eve extravaganza that includes fireworks, vendors and people bringing in the New Year.

For restaurant owners, the competition was a chance to show off their culinary prowess and put their best recipes forward.

“We try to do as many of these things as we can,” said Carlos Davidson, executive chef at South Beach Grill. “It’s awesome that we can get this many people out to these things.”

The Beach Blast Off crowd came in waves Monday afternoon, but the river of people never slowed down too much. The traffic was thick all around A1A Beach Boulevard by the time the celebration began at 4 p.m. Buses transporting revelers from remote lots were packed by the time the sun went down.

Getting the chance to make an impression on so many people at one time was a strong pull for some of the cook-off participants.

Co-owners of Jaybird’s, Margaret and Jay Martens, were pushing samples of their pork green chili. They were hoping to get some love from the judges, but they were mostly around Monday to promote their new restaurant.

Jaybird’s has been open for about three months, taking over — and reconstructing — the location on U.S. 1 that used to be the home of International House of Pancakes.

Red Frog and McToad’s owner Greg Kostka came to Monday’s event with similar intentions. His beach restaurant has been open for a little more than a year.

His cooks came up with a winning recipe at this year’s Great Chowder Debate, so he was looking to continue the momentum.

“It becomes a signature (to win a competition),” Kostka said. “I do every event there is.”

One group of chili chefs at the competition didn’t have a restaurant, but they do love chili. Locals Chad Radford, Caleb Cooper and Scott Herlihy of A Frame Sauce showed up with a pot of spicy chili to promote their home-grown datil pepper sauce.

Radford said about a dozen local restaurants are currently using their sauce — as are some businesses from out of town. The group produces organic peppers here, and the sauce is bottled in St. Augustine.

“We just want to get our name out there and our sauce,” Radford said.

Places such as South Beach Grill, Sunset Grille and Chili’s don’t lack for name recognition, but the cook-off was still a chance for their staffs to interact with customers and engage in some friendly competition.

John Rockwell, a cook at Sunset Grille, said his fellow employees were excited to have won three awards at the chowder debate. They worked on a special chili for Monday’s competition that isn’t even on the menu — yet.

“We like to have bragging rights,” he said. “It’s all about freshness. Everything is fresh (at Sunset).”

Working at a well-known eatery like South Beach Grill, Davidson said he likes to surprise people at festivals with different recipes. He brought a green chili for Monday’s event.

Davidson said the face-to-face interaction with so many customers and potential customers can only help him make South Beach a better restaurant.

“The community feedback is important,” he said. “The more feedback, the happier I can make the customer.”

Even a big chain like the appropriately named Chili’s can benefit from a local festival.

Chuck Beyer, who is the managing partner for the Chili’s at State Road 312, said the chili cook-off was a way to show St. Augustine that while his restaurant is a national brand, it’s a local, community-based business. Beyer said all the employees at the St. Augustine Chili’s are locals and have as much pride in their workplace as those who work for independent restaurants.

“Whenever we do something like this, there’s pride involved,” Beyer said. “They (the employees) want to be part of things like this.”

They also wanted to win. Beyer said the competition chili wasn’t the standard menu version. He let the cooks make a special batch for the cook-off.

“The team members wanted to do something special,” Beyer said. “They want the trophy.”

The winners

The winner of the competition was A Frame Sauce, which was first in the celebrity judges’ voting and the people’s choice. The judges picked Red Frog and McToad’s second and Sunset Grille third. In the people’s choice, Chili’s was second and Red Frog and McToad’s third. Jaybird’s won the award for the best booth decorations.